The Dogs of Toronto Animal Services South

His name is stitch now and he has two fur cat sisters and a fur doggie sister - plus 3 kids to cuddle up with.

The family was looking for another dog as they were moving into a big house with a great big yard and their other dog, Flower, is getting on with age so they wanted a younger dog
to keep Flower young. They instantly fell for Buddy. We weren't sure as Buddy doesn't like all dogs but after being with Ola for two months she worked on his dominance and he started loving other dogs

Buddy and Flower are best friends. It was instant. This family is perfect for Buddy. I have gotten many updates this week and things are going great. He is so great with their kids and has become a couch potato. They have not seen any dog aggression with other dogs. He is just doing so great with them. After many many months of looking for a home, he found the perfect one.

I just wanted to fill you in on what has been happening in my new life. My name is now Bender aka Ben.
The walks take me to beautiful parts of town. Today, I saw Dr. Pat. She was very nice to me. I didn't like
her touching my feet. She suggested a bath once a week with medicated shampoo. This is to see if it will
help my dry skin and the several growths on my back. She thought I was a good boy. She gave me 2 treats.
I'm going back to see her in a couple of weeks...just to see how I'm doing. My humans need to get my weight
down. I weighed in at 40.5 lbs.

My female human lets me get on the sofa for a snuggle and snooze. I have learned that I need to be invited
and can't just jump up whenever I want. My humans keep telling me how lucky there were to find me. I think
we were all lucky.

Attached is a picture of me and my brother Oliver. We walk together every day, otherwise we just ignore
each other.

ps.....We are almost out of toys. I've chewed mine and Oliver's to bits. I think it is okay because when
the Humans clean up the mess I get petted, rubbed and hugged.

A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------